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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210269">Spotify Wrapped 2020</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/whattheflameo/pseuds/whattheflameo'>whattheflameo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, F/M, Gen, Music, but not necessarily songfics, god remember songfics?, tws in the notes at the start of each chap</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:42:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,498</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210269</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/whattheflameo/pseuds/whattheflameo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Big FU to 2020 but here's a bunch of ficlets based on tumblr asks requesting song numbers from this year's Spotify Wrapped.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Korra/Asami Sato, Lin Beifong/Kya II, Pema/Tenzin (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Raise Your Glass- P!nk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>TW: Alcohol</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It has been months since Asami last had a night to go out, and she’s making the most of it. The drinks are strong, the music is loud and more importantly good, the club is small enough that she can have fun without people raising eyebrows at the CEO of Future Industries, also known as the Avatar’s Girlfriend. Asami is dancing like tomorrow isn’t going to come. She spins Korra around with a giddy smile. Does a totally-not-ridiculous-Lindy-hop-something-or-other with Bolin. Hip-bumps Opal and shouts song lyrics back and forth with Kya and sticks her tongue out at the matching raised eyebrows Huan and Lin send her from the bar. Even drags Mako out onto the dance floor for a bit. Maybe spills a bit of her drink when she throws her hands up in the air glass and all but definitely doesn’t care about it. For a few hours, she’s just a girl having a good time. Any thought of serious responsibilities dies in the back of her mind. Next to her on the floor, Korra watches her girlfriend lose her mind and falls that much more in love.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Uptown Girl- Billy Joel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Korra could spend an entire evening just watching Asami walk around in a formal dress. Her girlfriend may not be a bender in the traditional sense, but here she’s certainly in her element.<br/>Korra’s never been one to care much for the details of high society, but Asami was raised in them; this is all second nature to her. It’s enthralling to watch as she gracefully navigates a conversation with a difficult investor in a way that leaves him absolutely taken with her, then turns to a friend of theirs with a warm smile and recalls the name of each of their grandchildren. She’s so genuine, even among the gilded glitz of Republic City’s upper echelons, that its impossible for anyone to not like her.<br/>Not to mention she’s pretty. Like, really, really pretty.<br/>They make a interesting pair at these things- Asami, stunning and graceful in her floor-length dresses and perfect makeup; Korra in sure and powerful in her water tribe finery and boots. Athlete and socialite, warrior and princess, Avatar and CEO. Some peoole might have something to say about how vastly different they seem to be. When Asami smiles at her, and Korra can’t be bothered with the idea. Asami is even more genuine than she is graceful. Korra gets that. And that’s why this works.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. You Oughta Know - Jagged Little Pill</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Rough breakup, Angry Lin</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Lin, I... We need to talk about this. Us.” Tenzin grabs her by the wrist, stopping her as she tries to shove past him to exit the council building.<br/>Lin snatches her hand back and glares. “There is no us, Tenzin. You decided that six months ago.”<br/>He looks at her pityingly. “I understand our relationship didn't end under... ideal circumstances, but we work together. We can’t keep... bickering with each other,” he says, as if he’s not the one who’s gone into a panic every time he’s seen her since that day. She’s been nothing but cool and professional at work. Well, aside from that one time with Pema and the whole loitering thing.... and maybe the Air Temple Island courtyard...<br/>In any case, this isn’t her fault. “Oh, I’m sorry, Tenzin. You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not all warm and fuzzy after you called off our relationship of fifteen fucking years, not to mention our friendship of upwards of forty, to chase after some random acolyte.”<br/>He has the decency to look abashed at that. “I had... hoped our friendship would have been able to continue,” he says, and Lin’s lip curls.<br/>“Am I a fucking joke to you?” She demands. “I know you may have been able to move on in a day, and I’m thrilled for you. Really. Your life looks perfectly peaceful and I’m sure Pema will be a wonderful mother to a whole mess of airbenders,” she snaps. He reels back a bit and she tries not to be gratified by the fear in his eyes. “But no, I do not want to be friends. I have no interest in even speaking outside of our jobs, where I think we both know that I’m not the one causing the issue.” So what if he was the last of their family around now that even Katara was gone? So what if he was really her only friend at this point? So what if now she was all alone? She didn’t fucking care. “You made your bed, Tenzin. And I’m sorry that not everyone can just brush off a major relationship the way you apparently can, but I am here and I am not going away any time soon, you you’d better figure out how to fucking deal with it instead of blaming me.” She turns on her heel, not even bothering to wait for his response, and storms out of the council building, lashing out a cable to slam the door shut behind her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Epic II - Hadestown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Death</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lin frowned down from her throne, imperiously observing the souls of the dead as they toil below her. Around her hand twirls a stream of gold, flowing like water as she absentmindedly levitates it.</p><p>Heavy metal hammers pound into the black obsidian walls of the cavernous Underworld. The aqueduct they’re building is nearing completion; she’ll have to send them back to the wall when it’s done. She has no other projects for them here. It’s halfway through spring. There’s still another half, and all of the summer, before she can go collect Kya. Nearly half a year where her lover walks above the ground, a bottomless glass of wine in her hand. Dancing with flowers in her hair as the warm sun turns her skin brown. Smiling. Happy.</p><p>Her lip curls at the thought. There had been a time when she had made Kya happy, but that was no longer. The cool, dark vastness of her kingdom wasn’t enough for her wife’s wandering soul. Lin wasn’t enough for her. Kya was life, was color and warmth and springtime, and she was stark against Lin’s black shale presence. Lin tried to be good, gave everything she had to give to Kya, right down to giving her freedom to leave for half of each year.</p><p>The dead lay down their tools. They turned to her as one, silent and empty-eyes. The aqueduct was finished.</p><p>She stood from her throne and lowered her stance. Power surged through her as she felt the vast reservoir of oil behind her palace. She raised her arms and it rose from its riverbed, flowing through the air the way the gold had moments before. It roiled and churned with the same inky blackness that Lin could feel twisting deep in her chest. She had given everything she had, and yet Kya was still unsatisfied. Ran away to the sun each year and returned with bloodshot eyes to stumble around the palace in a cold, cruel drunken stupor. Complained in a voice scented with wine about how much she missed the earth above.</p><p>Dread filled the goddess of the Underworld each time her wife disappeared into the arms of Spring. Each year she rose to claim her earlier and earlier, uncaring of what it did to the seasons as long as it ensured her wife came back. Lin was black and bleak, as immovable as the stone her kingdom, her walls, were carved from. She was fear and darkness, the aftermath of death itself; how could she compare to the beauty of the sun? It was only a matter of time before Kya returned to the surface permanently. Lin couldn’t let that happen. She <em>needed</em> Kya.</p><p>The crude oil slipped into the aqueduct, reaching its fingers throughout the city of the dead. The working souls began their hollow trek back to construction of the Underworld’s wall. Lin sat back down on her throne, and glared out at them as she began to determine the earliest date she could ascend and reclaim her wife.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Rocky Mountain High - John Denver</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko is close to thirty when he first thinks about the fact that he hasn’t stopped rushing since losing his mother.<br/>He’d gone straight from that, to trying to prove his worth as an heir, to banishment, hunting the avatar, teaching the<br/>avatar, ruling the fire nation, trying to repair the damage they’ve done to the world...<br/>Well, you get the gist.<br/>He slows down for the first time on a trip into the eastern islands of the Fire Nation. Zuko’s visiting as part of a<br/>regular royal tour and he knows he’s been here before, but somehow the sight of the mountains rolling out below the<br/>caravan, on and on until they reach a shimmering sea at the very edges of his sight, feels different now that the<br/>constant pressure of survival is off his shoulders. He can across the scenery and see something other than tactical<br/>blueprints.<br/>As he begins to get older, and as Izumi becomes a teenager and then twenty and thirty herself, he returns to the<br/>mountains off and on, leaving her in charge. He finds a small, clean cabin tucked into a bluff just below a mountain<br/>peak and starts using it as a retreat. The solitary silence of simply walking through the pine trees, watching a creek<br/>tumble by or an eaglehawk flying overhead, brings a sense of peace he once thought he’d never find. It’s a chance<br/>for him to consider himself and his own thoughts, to turn over complex problems in his mind without the eyes of a<br/>whole nation on him. There is so little to do here other than to simply be.<br/>Mai rolls her eyes and declares that she doesn’t understand his obsession with walking around in the wild, but she<br/>comes with him to the cabin and doesn’t bother hiding a small smile when she’s tucked under a blanket in front of<br/>the fireplace. Takes the chance to sharpen her throwing skills without people staring at her in awe.<br/>They sit together on the porch in the evenings, looking up at the stars and making up silly constellations. Zuko looks<br/>out into the darkness and sees the flicker of a long-forgotten campfire, a cookpot in the shadow of a great white<br/>beast. Hears Sokka’s terrible jokes and Toph’s raucous laughter. Feels the wind on his face as Druk carries him, Mai,<br/>and Izumi toward their little mountain hideout.<br/>When Izumi finally succeeds him, he begins spending more time at the cabin than away from it, his responsibilities<br/>to the world far fewer and his time for peace greater. After a lifetime of rushing, its the most perfect thing he could<br/>ask for. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Epic III - They Danced - Hadestown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“That used to be us, you know,” Kya murmured. Lin looked at the dancing specters before them, swaying together<br/>to the sounds of the guitar and the girl’s voice. It was almost intoxicating; music had so long been absent from her<br/>kingdom.<br/>She turned to her wife, and Kya smiled softly back at her. For the first time in what felt like eons, her cheeks weren’t<br/>flushed with drink. Her eyes clear and blue, that same skylark color Lin had been so fascinated by when Kya had<br/>first appeared in the Underworld.<br/>Lin’s own face softens without her permission, and for once she doesn’t school her features. Something in her chest<br/>loosens as the girl- Korra, her name is Korra- continues singing her refrain.<br/>She stands and holds out her hand, palm up. Kya places her own soft, strong hand on top of Lin’s rough callouses,<br/>allowing her to pull her gently to her feet. They step down from their dais onto the grey stone ground.<br/>Their bodies fit close together as though built for that very purpose. The dead make room among them without<br/>looking at the godly couple. Surrounded by their ghostly figures and the sweet tones of a girl in love, Lin and Kya<br/>dance. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Overture - Mary Poppins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lin isn’t sure how they managed it, but Kya and the kids have somehow managed to coat the entire kitchen in flour<br/>in the time it took her to change the youngest’s diaper. She’d already been reluctant to watch Opal and Bolin’s<br/>children in her own house, but this draws the line. If they ever need a babysitter again, the destruction will stay<br/>localized to their house.<br/>The oldest, a five-year-old earthbender with a penchant for giggling at everything, slows the rapidly spinning<br/>ceramic bowl on the counter.<br/>"Alright, you got the eggs all mixed in!" Kya cheers. She plucks the bowl up and reaches for a dry measuring cup.<br/>"The recipe says exactly one tablespoon per cookie, and it’s imperative we follow it to the letter. Now if you two<br/>hold the tray still, I’ll-"<br/>"Kya, why must you always complicate things that are really quite simple?" Lin questions, striding into the kitchen<br/>to stave off what she knows is going to be an even bigger mess. She hands the baby to her surprised wife, snatches a<br/>clean spoon off the table, and steps in between the two older children. She begins scooping balls of cookie dough<br/>into neat rolls on the sheet.<br/>Her second great-niblings, a four-year-old niece, frowns at her. "But Aunt Lin, the recipe says-"<br/>"I know. But if you do it that way, they’ll all come out exactly the same," she says without stopping. "If they’re all<br/>the same, what will you do when you only want a small cookie? What about when you want a big one?"<br/>"A really big one?" The little boy questions, his eyes lighting up.<br/>Lin doubles the size of the scoops on the last three cookies. "Really, really big."<br/>By the time she says it, the sheet is full. She hands the girl the battered spoon and deftly shifts her away from the<br/>oven so she can open it and put the cookie sheet in. She dips her own finger into the bowl for a taste of the cookie<br/>dough before handing that to the little boy. He’s got his hands in it before she can hand him a spoon. Lin supposes<br/>not everything can be a win.<br/>"Now, between us and Aunt Kya, I bet we can clean this mess up in time to make some hot chocolate before they’re<br/>finished. But you’ll have to be quick about it!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Dog Days are Over - Florence and the Machine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Mental Health</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lin Beifong doesn’t run away from anything. She’s tough as titanium, stronger than stone, immovable as a<br/>mountain and she does not flee from what scares her. Staying at the station and throwing herself into every case on<br/>the docket isn’t hiding, it’s her job. She isn’t avoiding Kya.<br/>The trouble is, she’s happy. The thought is as sudden as it is wrong. Kya makes Lin happy, truly happy and that<br/>means this is never going to last.<br/>She has to go out for a meeting with Tenzin that he, for whatever reason, couldn’t come to the mainland for. He’s<br/>even more awkward than normal and she gets suspicious. It’s well founded- Kya corners her before she can make it<br/>back to the stupid ferry.<br/>“You should leave. You could do a lot better,” Lin admits. The words feel like thrusting an actual knife into her<br/>stomach. “I’m not built for happiness.”<br/>Kya raises an eyebrow at her. “It’s cute that you think you can get out of this relationship that easily.” She kisses Lin<br/>on the forehead and drags her to the beach to have lunch on a silly, sandy blanket. The sunshine is warm. The waves<br/>are gentle. Lin is happy and starts to think she might not need to run. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Lindy - Kenny Chesney</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She met Lindy when she had taken a seasonal job fishing in a town on the northern side of Chameleon Bay. She’d<br/>passed him every morning on her way to the dock and again on her way back to her lodging house in the evenings.<br/>She’d waved, called out a hello and offered a smile each time.<br/>He was a portly older man, perhaps seventy, with skin weathered brown and pockmarked. His long hair was thin and<br/>scraggly, yellowed where a man who hadn’t lived a hard, outdoor life may have had white. He sat in a wooden chair<br/>outside his small corner store every day, only ever absent when it rained. The entire time she knew him, he never<br/>wore a shirt.<br/>She didn’t know why she’d been immediately fond of him the first time she saw him; perhaps he remind her of<br/>Uncle Iroh or one of her grandfathers. After a few days of her regular greetings, he became just as happy to see her<br/>as she was to see him. When she walked past one morning hurt and angered by a letter she had received from<br/>Tenzin, and didn’t call out, he called out to her. Her mood had immediately brightened when she realized she had<br/>made a friend.<br/>That evening, as if he had picked up on her foul mood that morning, he waved her over to his little store and offered<br/>her a fruit popsicle from the freezer. When she asked how much, the treat already in her mouth, he waved her off.<br/>She spent quite some time with Lindy that summer, listening to his stories and sharing popsicles. He told her about<br/>the old ways of fishing, with smaller boats and wider nets, and how different things were now. How this town was<br/>secretly the only town in the world where Tsungi fish grew to this size. He wove stories of storms and close calls<br/>and late wives that sounded like the ones Grandpa Hakoda had told her as a child.<br/>When she’d found out he played the guitar, their chats began to evolve into impromptu music sessions. Friends and<br/>neighbors began to come sit outside in the evenings to listen or join in.<br/>She’d been sad to say goodbye to him when the fishing season was over. At least, as sad as she ever was to leave<br/>anyone behind. His memory became a favorite among her travels. Every so often, she wondered what ever became<br/>of him. Rather than dwell on it, she chose to believe that he was one of those ageless souls that would forever sit<br/>outside, shirtless in his wooden chair, and wave hello to people passing on the street.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! At the Disco</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Headache/Migraine</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Is the bullpen always this loud?<br/>Lin’s been trying to ford her way through a frankly ridiculous amount of case files for most of the day, ignoring the pain behind her eyes that grows with every stupid mistake she has to mark so that her officers can review it. They’re good people, most of them, and the mistakes are probably honest errors, but if she has to take these papers home tonight they’re going to be dead people.<br/>Normally, she leaves her office door closed. Some idiot had left it open earlier and the rest of the world had taken that as a cue to come running in and out all day with questions or requests or updates or whatever else she’s had to roll her eyes at. Nobody has thought to shut it behind them.<br/>By three o’clock, when a rookie officer leaves her office mere seconds before a cheer goes up from the rest of the station for something she can’t be bothered to care about -it’s that Tun finally got the balls to ask the woman living next door out on a date, she’d heard them all talking about it earlier- she’s had more than enough.<br/>She stands up from her seat and stomps across the room so hard the building shakes. Leaning on the doorframe and sticking her head into the bullpen, she demands "Haven’t you people ever heard of closing the spirits-damned door?"<br/>She glares at their stunned faces for a split second before slamming it shut and going back to her paperwork.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Why Did It Have To Be Me - Mamma Mia 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Korra had been right- this was the perfect day to go sailing. It was warm enough to swim but not so blazing they were miserable, with a steady breeze and gentle, rolling swells that Korra was absolutely delighting in sending their little sailboat over. She laughed as they dipped into another trough. Asami hung on for dear life, feeling the salt spray tug at her hair as they slid down the wave, and turned back to grin at her girlfriend. The free fall lasted only a few seconds, but it was exhilarating all the same.<br/>After a few hair-raising hours, Korra navigated them back into the calmer water on the lee side of Air Temple Island. She held the boat steady as Asami tossed out an anchor, and the two of them met beside the hatch to sit down for lunch. They traded jokes and caught up with each other over dumplings Asami had pre-packed that morning. Once they were finished, they leaned against each other and just kept talking, content with each other and the sunshine.<br/>Content, that was, until Korra apparently got restless and scooped Asami up before jumping over the side of the boat. Asami shrieked as they fell. When she broke the surface again, spluttering and shoving her hair out of her eyes, Korra was laughing again. She tried to glare at the Avatar, but it was difficult to stay angry when she looked so happy. Being out on the water always brought out a special excitement in Korra, the same kind Asami recognized in herself on the racetrack.<br/>She supposed that if someone had to put up with her crazy girlfriend, it may as well be her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Armor - Sara Bariellis</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When she’d last stepped out of her armor, she’d needed help to do so. Now, as she stands looking at it, barefoot and trying not to freeze in Katara’s spare room, the feeling of it singing back to her for the first time in weeks brings a level of relief she didn’t know was possible. She’s about to bend it back on when there’s a knock on her open door.<br/>She turns to see Korra standing there, shoulders uncharacteristically curled in and arms wrapped around her middle. "Uh, Chief Beifong, I was just- I wanted to know if you could talk? For a minute?"<br/>Lin raises an eyebrow, surprised that Korra is requesting this from her of all people, but gestures for her to come in. Korra sits down heavily on her bed. Lin leans against the nightstand. She flails for a moment, trying to figure out what it is that supportive adults say in these situations. Korra literally gave her back her bending this morning; she figures she at least owes the kid a conversation. "What’s up?"<br/>"I... You’ve gotten hurt on the job before, right? Because you’re a police officer?"<br/>"Yes..." Lin says, unsure of where this is going.<br/>"Was any of it... I mean... did you ever feel like..."<br/>"Was any of it as bad as losing my bending?" Lin says for her. Korra looks up with wide eyes, and Lin’s a little offended by her surprise before she turns away again.<br/>"Yeah. Like that," she admits.<br/>Lin is silent for a long time, mulling the question over in her mind. The short answer is no. Nothing has ever come remotely close to the absolute devastation of having her very center ripped out of her heart. But something tells her that’s not what the Avatar needs to hear right now.<br/>She hesitates too long; Korra starts talking again before Lin can. "I just... I know I have it back now, but what if something else happens? Amon could still be out there, he could- or someone else could take it. I’m the Avatar, I have to protect the world, but I’m so scared it’s going to happen again, and I..." she stops suddenly after they both hear her voice growing thick.<br/>Lin can’t blame her for her tears. It’s been an emotional day. She sighs and shifts to sit next to Korra on the bed. "Long story short, kid? No, nothing was ever this bad. But things were bad." Spirits, that sounds dumb. What would Uncle Aang say if he were here? "That’s just what happens to people like us- we protect people, we do good, and sometimes we get knocked down doing it. But we get back up again."<br/>Korra seems like she’s listening. Lin keeps going. "Y’know, this morning I was convinced I’d never put that back on," she says, nodding at the armor still laid out on the opposite side of the bed. "I’d have still been me if I couldn’t; it’s not the only armor I’ve got. Every time we get back up after something hits home and hurts, our armor gets a bit tougher. Or, a lot tougher, in this case."<br/>Korra snorts a laugh. Feeling a sudden bout of affection that she’s definitely not going to admit to later, Lin bumps her shoulder into the Avatar’s. "You’re a good Avatar, kid. You’ve got heart, and you’re tough as nails. This is gonna take a few days to walk off, but you will."<br/>Finally, that crushed look starts to lift off Korra’s face. She bumps back into Lin’s shoulder with a small smile. "Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Chief."<br/>"Don’t mention it."<br/>The smile suddenly turns mischievous as Korra stands to leave. "So, does this mean you’re gonna make me my own armor now?"<br/>"Get out of my room."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Dead Mom - Beetlejuice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Death, Death of a parent</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As far as Katara is concerned at this point, she and Sokka are orphans. From here on out, it’s them and GranGran against the world.<br/>"Hey Mom," she says, sitting down heavily at the edge of the glacier. Above her, the lights in the sky flicker as if her mother is responding. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Things are pretty much the same as yesterday. Sokka’s still a terrible fisherman, but Mitki and Sina got enough seal meat so everyone won’t starve. Since apparently the men didn’t consider that none of us know how to fish. It doesn’t matter; I’m going to learn how to catch them with waterbending."<br/>It’s been two days since Dad left. Left them here, in the ravaged, nearly-bender-less South Pole, on their own even after Mom-<br/>When it had happened, Hakoda had held Katara and Sokka close and promised that they would never, ever lose him the same way. That he wouldn’t leave them alone the same way. But here she was, alone at the edge of a glacier, fuming because he’d lied. And now she’s just expected to pick up all the slack that all the adults in her life have left behind.<br/>"I’m trying to keep everything together," she says. "I’m not great at it, but it’s not exactly easy." She’s not kidding- she washes clothes, cleans the house, helps GranGran with the cooking, dries out and cleans skins so they’ll have enough fur for clothes and shoes when they inevitably outgrow theirs. Because Dad certainly won’t be here to help with that.<br/>The responsible voice in the back of her mind whispers that her tribe is there to help her. She has a long line of aunts and cousins ready and willing to teach her what she doesn’t know, to take care of what she can’t. Right now, though, that voice isn’t loud enough. She looks up at the colors brushed across the night sky and feels more alone than ever.<br/>How is she supposed to keep things from falling apart when she herself feels like she’s scattered in a million and one icy fractals. She tries to raise an icicle out of the snow around her just to have something to do with her hands. It comes up jagged and brittle, and snaps in three pieces when she tries to break it off at the base.<br/>She hurls the shards into the ocean with a frustrated shout. She can’t even waterbend right and she’s supposed to keep her whole tribe safe. Her father had left her and Sokka here to do his stupid job while they’re off joining in this stupid war against the stupid Fire Nation with all the stupid fishermen in the tribe.<br/>"What am I supposed to do here?" She shouts at the sky. "I’m not you, Mom! I don’t want to be you."<br/>Okay, that’s a lie. Maybe the one thing she wants most in the world is to be just like her mother. She just... she’s twelve and she doesn’t want her mom’s job yet.<br/>She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment. There isn’t exactly a choice in the matter. The men had done the right thing by leaving; they couldn’t keep sitting around just hoping for someone else to end the war. Sokka is doing his best to take on dad’s responsibilities, even if he’s tragic at it. GranGran and the tribe are there to help them along. Dad is going to eventually come back. She opens her eyes and bends another tiny icicle just to release the rest of her energy. It comes up sharp and clear, just in the shape she’d imagined.<br/>The lights shimmer a bit brighter in her mother’s favorite reddish shade of purple.<br/>It can’t be that hard to learn how to fish.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Under Pressure - Queen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Implied Violence</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>None of them has to say it for everyone to be on the same page: if this plan fails, Kuvira wins. There’s nothing stopping her from moving on other nations with that new weapon.<br/>That new weapon that manages to harness enough spirit energy to obliterate four city blocks in one shot. As the giant suit takes another step into the city, they each resolve themselves to the tasks they know they’ll have to handle.<br/>Korra knows she’s going to face Kuvira again. Knows that there won’t be another chance, no Jinora or Opal to bail her out or Air Temple Island to retreat to. To her surprise, even if it’s a high-intensity situation, it’s not the most pressure she’s ever been under. Kuvira and her weapon are nothing compared to Unalaq or Vatuu. For the first time in years, she’s poison-free and spiritually grounded. A glance over each shoulder reveals the number of people backing her up. People she has every bit of faith in to do their jobs.<br/>"Let’s go."<br/>The stakes are high. But Korra’s always done her best work under pressure.</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. I'm Getting Stoned - Eric Church</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Alcohol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She’d only gone to the wedding because Katara would be hurt if she didn’t. No part of her had wanted to go.<br/>She stood in her dress uniform at the back of the ceremony, stayed at the reception for exactly as long as would be considered polite, and the retreated back to the ferry and her apartment in the city.<br/>It wasn’t that she wasn’t over Tenzin. A year of separation had brought clarity to her thoughts on their relationship and at this point she was glad it had ended. The loneliness was worth it now that the heavy black weight of dread no longer followed her every move. Let Pema carry the next generation of airbenders- she seemed well suited, and Lin wanted no part of it. Hadn’t ever wanted part of it.<br/>No, her chaffing at the wedding wasn’t because she wanted to be the one next to Tenzin. It was bitterness that somehow, after a relationship that had lasted nearly half their lives, he had been able to find some fairytale happily-ever-after within a year. Tenzin had joy in his life, had a beautiful wife who loved him and a mother who was proud and siblings who adored him and friends and-<br/>A knock at her door pulled her out of her angry spiral. She glared at it as if that would scare away whoever was on the other side.<br/>"Lin. If you don’t let me in you’re going to have to metalbend your lock back together after I melt it."<br/>Lin huffs in annoyance but stands up anyway. She knows from experience that Izumi isn’t kidding. For a moment, she considers hiding the bottle of liquor sitting open on the coffee table, but eventually decides fuck it.<br/>The Crown Princess of the Fire Nation is standing in plain clothes on her doorstep with one eyebrow raised. "Zu, I’m not exactly up for comp-"<br/>She’s cut off as Izumi barges past her into the apartment. She purposefully checks Lin in the shoulder as she does and shoves an impressively large bottle of baijiu into her hands.<br/>Lin looks at the unfamiliar label, raising her eyebrows at the concentration. She looks back up in time to see Izumi chuck an overnight bag into her bedroom and sit primly on the arm of the couch. "You’re never up for company," she points out. "I invited myself because frankly, after that ceremony, I want to get wasted. I can’t even imagine what’s on your mind right now. So we’re going to drink your whole liquor stash and that bottle of fancy baijiu I bought them as a wedding gift and decided to keep during hour two of that ridiculous acolyte speech."<br/>Lin eyes her skeptically. "I’m not talking about him. Or her."<br/>Izumi snorts and grabs the open bottle off the table. "Sounds good to me." She takes a swig and promptly chokes on the cheap whiskey. "Spirits, that’s disgusting. Open that and get over here."<br/>The bottle in her hand is certainly much nicer than anything in her cabinet. She shrugs and joins her older cousin on the couch.</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Flowers - Hadestown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Mental Health, Implied/Referenced Major Character Death (ish)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Asami stares at the obsidian walls and tries to let her mind wander. It’s getting harder and harder to do that the longer she’s here.<br/>Hungry. She remembers being hungry, and tired. Wanting to sleep. To be warm and to not be hungry anymore.<br/>She remembers that this was supposed to be better. That she paid the coins in search of relief. Rest. Now she works on the wall. Night in and night out, from whistle to whistle, pickaxe biting at stone in a never-ending rhythm.<br/>What was a rhythm? She tries to remember the idea, the same sound over and over, over and over. Why was that idea so fascinating, so important...<br/>The face. The face flickers into her mind again. She can feel flowers beneath her feet and sunshine on her shoulders and she can see that face. That face is why it’s important.<br/>The face is why what’s important?<br/>It doesn’t matter. She holds tight to the image of the face as it blurs around the edges. Tries to focus on the crooked smile and the blue, blue eyes. There’s no blue like those eyes here. They light the brunt-out stub of the candle in her souls for just a moment before the chills of Hadestown snuffs it out again.<br/>She wonders if the face will come find her. Wonders if she’s worth coming to find, after she was the one who brought herself here. Wonders who the face in her thoughts is. Wonders why it’s there. Wonders what she was thinking about. Wonders how long until the whistle next blows.</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Heartbreakers - Kenny Chesney</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Alcohol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The last time they all spend a summer together, Kya has just turned twenty. Izumi is wizened twenty-three, and Lin somehow sixteen and yet the oldest among them.<br/>Kya knows the three of them make a sight, especially now that Lin has grown out of her awkward teenage phase. Everyone on the way to the beach seems to stop dead as they go by. It’s gratifying, she has to admit, because for once heads aren’t turning because there goes the Avatar’s daughter- there goes the Firelord’s daughter- there goes Toph Beifong’s daughter-<br/>No one specifically mentions that this will probably be their last summer without responsibilities, but they’re aware. Maybe that’s why Kya can’t seem to stop dancing, and Izumi has a wild glint in her eye, Lin only puts up a token protest when they drag her into trouble. They spend nearly every waking moment on the beach, sunbathing and swimming and bouncing from bonfire to bonfire in the evenings. Kya makes it out to ride a giant Koi and comes back with the tooth of an Unagi. There are boys and girls alike sitting down beside her towel nonstop for three days after, staring at her with big, adoring eyes and hanging her even bigger, even-more-adoring drinks.<br/>She and Izumi share more than a few amused looks when the attention begins to disperse more evenly between all three of them, especially when they both catch on to the flustered annoyance on Lin’s face. She eventually gets a bit more comfortable with the eyes on her, even if she continues to gripe about it. They spend dozens of nights laughing back and forth about the would-be suitors. None of them ever takes it much further than flirting, more concerned with having fun together than having a summertime fling.<br/>Once it was clear the girls weren’t actually looking to get involved, all but the most infatuated admirers wandered away. That didn’t mean there weren’t dozens of broken hearts at the end of the summer. The three parted ways with smiles and tears, Izumi and Lin going home to responsibility, Kya going even further to run from it. Sometimes, Kya wonders if anyone on Kyoshi Island would recognize them as those same adventurous, vibrant girls from that summer and all the ones before.</p>
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<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Don't Lose Ur Head</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Arrest</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She’s not sorry for voicing her feelings. Not when she sees the destruction in the courtyard, not when the other acolytes start giving her odd looks or when Tenzin’s siblings eye her suspiciously on their first visit. Not even now, sitting in a holding cell at the Republic City police station.<br/>She does regret that her actions have quite obviously hurt Lin. They hadn’t exactly been friends, but she’d admired the woman despite the sad ache of pining jealousy in her chest every time she’d seen her together with Tenzin. Lin was everything Pema wasn’t; fierce, powerful, driven. But likewise, Pema was a lot of things Lin wasn’t, and one of those things was right for Tenzin.<br/>One thing they both weren’t? Criminals.<br/>She’d known Lin was mad, but this is ridiculous. "I wasn’t loitering," she says, crossing her arms and glaring at the older woman from behind bars.<br/>Lin glares right back. "That’s not what my officers said."<br/>"I was literally shopping at the market, there’s no way you can keep me in here for that-"<br/>"Which is the only reason I’m letting him come and pick you up." She notices that Lin very carefully doesn’t say Tenzin’s name.<br/>Refusing to back down, Pema holds her steely gaze with one that she hopes is just as unyielding. Her actions may not have been perfect, but this breakup wasn’t solely on her and she’s sick of everyone saying it was. Anyone with eyes could see that Tenzin and Lin had been unhappy together.<br/>For most of her life, Pema has been content with her role as a background character. Taking care of others, tending a home, being a mother, those are the things she’s always wanted. It’s what drew her to the gentle ways of the air nation acolytes. But she’s not afraid to stand up and make herself heard when it’s something important. And right now, she feels anything but gentle.<br/>"I’m not sorry," she snaps at her boyfriend’s ex. "I’d appreciate if you’d refrain from harassing me like some bitter wasp."<br/>The Assistant Chief of Police doesn’t deign that with a verbal response, instead narrowing her eyes before storming out of the room.</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Blame It On The Kids - AViVA</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Referenced violence, politicians, Raiko</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Do <em>not</em> try to pin this on her!"<br/>Korra blinks in surprise as the Chief of Police steps in front of her, one arm extended protectively as she places herself between Korra and the president. Rakio appears just as stunned, frozen mid-gesture. He composes himself quickly.<br/>"Chief Beifong-"<br/>"Don’t Chief Beifong me. I’ve stood here listening to you try and pass the blame for that disaster for two hours. You can blame the triads, blame the dealers, you can and probably should put some of that blame on me. But the Avatar’s presence was nothing but a stabilizing factor today and for you to imply this is in any way her fault is bison-shit when the majority of the culpability is your own."<br/>Raiko’s eyes widen first with shock, and then with anger. Korra watches his face turn as red as the curtains behind his desk. She tries to wrap her mind around the turn of events, but Spirits, she’s exhausted. Had Lin just... stuck up for her?<br/>Sure, she knows the Chief has her back; Korra owes her her life probably a dozen times over. But usually, when it comes to the consequences of her actions, people- and especially Lin- are content to let Korra handle her own consequences. It’s part of being the Avatar. She zoned out a bit, watching the pair shout back and forth for a few moments before Lin is suddenly snatching her arm and dragging her from the room.<br/>"You okay, kid?" The Chief asks when they’re a fair distance away. Korra blinks and shakes her head.<br/>"Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for the save."<br/>Lin waves her off rather than repeating her typical don’t mention it. "I fuckin hate it when he does that. So I called him out; he’ll get over it."<br/>The way she says it makes Korra think this isn’t the first time it’s happened. As much as she wants to analyze that further, the very thought sounds exhausting. Lin raises an eyebrow at her. "You should go home and get some sleep," she says after a beat.<br/>Korra nods, but makes herself look up for at least another second. "You should too, y’know."<br/>Lin laughs outright at that. "Yeah, fine. Come on, I’ll give you a lift home."<br/><br/></p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Unprodigal Daughter - Alanis Morrisette</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Family strain</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She didn’t let out the breath she was holding until the ferry left the docks. She sat down in her seat, tucking her arms close against the misty rain. No one could stop her now. Finally, she was in charge of her own life.<br/>The ferry would only take her across the strait, and after that she didn’t really have a plan. Right now, what she needed was to put distance between herself and Gaoling.<br/>Stupid Gaoling, and her stupid, stifling grandparents, where the weight of society and expectations and rules had felt like it would crush her.<br/>The man next to her coughed wetly. She shifted away the slightest bit, unwilling to catch a cold when she had just set out. Her ticket had been for the lowest decks, where the poorest travelers rode. Her grandparents wouldn’t think to look for her here, if they looked at all. It wasn’t entirely bad; sure the man next to her was frankly gross, but there was a group of musicians playing a cheerful tune even despite the weather. The baby sitting across the isle blinked curiously at Su from her mother’s lap. Su grinned and waved before covering her eyes in a game of peek-a-boo. The mother smiled kindly at her when the baby burst out in giggles. She asked where Su was headed, if she’d ever been to the eastern coast before, and recommended a lodging house when Su answered in the negative. The man behind her, a perfect stranger, recognized the address and offered to draw Su a map.<br/>These people were kind, so much more genuine than the friends of her grandparents, and Su was certain she’d made the right choice by leaving.<br/>Poppy and Lao would probably panic when they found her missing, but she honestly couldn’t have cared less. Once they got over the idea of their Perfect Heir being gone, they wouldn’t care either. She convinced herself that didn’t hurt; she’d known for the full two years she’d lived with them that they were only interested in their image of her, not the real her.<br/>Mom would probably laugh, and say that Su really was her daughter. Lin would scold her and wag her finger. Stupid Mom, who had sent her to Gaoling in the first place, and stupid Lin, who always thought she knew best. Who’s thoughts somehow mattered to Su even after two whole years of unanswered letters and broiling anger.<br/>Someday, she was going to go back to Republic City and show them just how little they had known. How little they understood of the world, and how much more Su knew. Until then, them and what they thought weren’t her problem. She was on her own quest.<br/><br/><br/><br/></p>
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<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Unprodigal Daughter - Jagged Little Pill</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Family strain</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She didn’t let herself stop for breath until the back of the sky bison shifted underneath her. She settles down against the side of the saddle, feeling the cold breeze flit across her skin. The sudden loss of the sense of earth beneath her feet made Toph’s stomach roll, but nobody could stop her now. She was finally going to be free.<br/>It occured to her after they took off that she had no idea where they were going. Sitting at her stupid parents’ stupid dinner table, their plan had seemed simple: leave stupid Gaoling, fight the stupid Firelord. That had been enough for her then. And it was enough now, too, she decided. Anything that put distance between her and the Beifong Family Estate was enough.<br/>Despite the disturbing emptiness below her, she supposed sky bison was the best mode of travel she could have hoped for. Her parents, and whoever they sent out after her, were going to be looking for four kids traveling on foot. They’d never even think to look up.<br/>The kid who sounded older started talking, explaining more than she’d asked for. He had a gritty voice, distinct, and no matter what he said it never came across as serious. Toph has already committed it to memory, just like those of the avatar and the girl, because she could. Because she knew how to take care of herself.<br/>When he was talking, she got a clearer sense of where he was in relation to her. And the avatar was probably driving this flying fuzzball, so that meant it was the girl who was rearranging things- supplies, she supposed- to her left. After a few minutes, she chimed in as well. Toph could hear it in their tones before they stated it outright- they werr related. Their banter was easy and relaxed, nothing like the stiff interactions she had with the guards or the rotating tutors on the estate. Maybe it was because they were talking to her, including her in the conversation in a genuine way that her parents never did. Sokka laughed at something she said and Toph was certain she’d made the right choice.<br/>Her parents would probably panic when they realized she was missing, but she can’t find it in herself to care. She told herself that once they got over the loss of their fragile little butterfly-dove, they wouldn’t care either. She’d known all her life that her parents were more interested in their image of her than the real her, and when she’d finally showed them how wrong that image was, they’d refused to accept it. Toph convinced herself that didn’t hurt.<br/>Someday, she was going to go back to Gaoling and show them just how little they had known. How little they understood of Toph’s place in the world, and how much more she was than just their little girl. Until then, them and what they thought weren’t her problem. She was on her own quest.</p>
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<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Monster - dodie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Toxic Friendship</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mai had known from an early age that the Firelord’s children were going to be her downfall. Back then, it hadn’t really mattered. She’d wanted friends, and Dad hadn’t let her have any others, so elected to ignore Zuko’s omnipresent anger and the way Azula’s eyes glinted a little too bright when she won anything. At least she’d gotten Ty Lee out of the deal, too.<br/>They weren’t exactly easy people to be friends with. As much as Mai doesn’t care for what others think of her, she knew she had to keep in at least one of their good graces. Reminders of the consequences of stepping out of line were everywhere. But at least they had been fun. Something interesting, a chance to hone her skills, to get out of the monotony of High Society. When Azula came knocking, she’d gone with her friend without hesitation, even though that unsettling glint had become permanent and Zuko... well, Zuko didn’t bear thinking about.<br/>Speaking of Zuko, she’s still fuming at him as she sprints down the hallway. The fact that he’d left her alone with nothing but a stupid note still stings as much as the fact that he’s leaving again right this very moment. She’d had to wait for some lowly guard to let her out of the cell he’d locked her in, and now he’s escaping with the enemy.<br/>Is that what he is now, she wonders. The enemy?<br/>And more importantly, she wonders why. Why leave now? Why throw away everything he had- his station, his family, the return of his honor, her- to switch sides at such a crucial point in the war? She wonders if that even matters as she looses a handful of knives to pin a pair of escaping prisoners to the wall.<br/>Mai has considered Azula her friend since childhood. But now she also considers the madness that’s been encroaching on her friend’s edges in the last year. That shimmer in her eye has faded into a flash on her teeth when she smiles. There’s a desperation to her actions now that wasn’t there when they were kids; there hadn’t been any questioning Azula then, but now, Mai finds herself obeying on instinct just to avoid her wrath. She’d turned on her own brother without hesitation and Mai knows that she’ll face the same fate if she so much as hesitates on an order.<br/>She realizes, when she makes it onto the platform and sees Azula and Ty Lee stalking Zuko and that Water Tribe loser, that Zuko is going to die. The guards are cutting the cables holding the gondola above the lake and there’s no way for the escaping traitors to stop it. Her (ex?)boyfriend is going to crash down and boil to death in agony while her childhood friend crows with victory.<br/>She makes her choice less then a second after realizing that she has one.</p>
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<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Everyone She Knows - Kenny Chesney</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: None</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She’d known it was coming, so the news of Izumi’s engagement doesn’t get that much of a reaction from her. Izumi’s always had a Life Plan and she’s the only one of Kya’s friends that’s been lucky enough to have it work out.<br/>There’s a bit of an age gap between the two of them, but Kya can’t help thinking that even three years from now, she’s not going to be ready to commit herself to one person for the rest of forever. The idea of committing herself to one place is even less appealing.<br/>That being said, picking up a new girl in every town she visits is also starting to lose its appeal. She usually happy to hold a brand-new lesbian’s hand, but having to do it every other time is a bit repetitive. Finding someone more experienced usually takes work that she’s not willing to put in. She knows she’s being ‘fussy’ but also doesn’t particularly care.<br/>She’ll go to the wedding, obviously, and probably go early to throw Izumi a killer bachelorette party. She’ll hear all about Bumi and Tenzin and Lin’s recent promotions. Katara will ask if Kya has come to a decision on whether she wants children. There won’t be any pressure in it, thank Spirits for her wonderfully understand mother, but Kya’s edging closer and closer to the ‘no’ side of *that* street. Then again, there are days when she thinks she might enjoy having a little one to snuggle and raise and see off to college.<br/>Everyone she knows seems to have figured out what they want in life. If Kya’s honest, she doesn’t. She’s in some sort of in-between space right now. The frantic need to leave a place before she falls into a routine has mostly faded. The restlessness, the drive to see something new and different, is still thrumming beneath her heartbeat.<br/>When days like Izumi’s wedding arrive, Kya almost wonders if she’s falling behind or running out of time for... something. But she doesn’t want something. She wants her life, with all its adventure and opportunity and excitement. It suits her; it doesn’t need to suit everyone she knows. And Kya likes it that way.</p>
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<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chandelier - Moulin Rouge!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Meelo</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I am unstoppable!" <em>"</em></p><p>
  <em>Meelo get down from there!"</em>
</p>
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<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Happy Does - Kenny Chesney</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Alcohol, Another Fucking Kenny Chesney Song</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Nakad Zenko Band, "Don’t Lose Your Love. 37AG."<br/>
The declaration was met with a handful of groans. Bumi raised his bottle of sake at the group of seamen and officers before taking a long sip. They’re trying their best to stump him with band names again; it’s a popular pastime on shore leave. They’ve yet to do so, which coincidentally means he’s yet to pay for a sake tonight.<br/>
In the United Forces, for every good moment there are a hundred and one moments of seriousness and even despair. Bumi doesn’t linger on those for any longer than he has to. His place here suits him- he’s got a battalion of good people, a way to help keep others safe that doesn’t require bending, and, good or bad, each day is a new adventure. He takes stories home to his nieces and nephews and even runs into his sister on occasion. Someone’s got to remind the forces that life doesn’t require maudlinity, much as it tries to force it.<br/>
Another song comes on. "Rishi Pallai, ‘Sunshine.’ 76 AG."<br/>
<br/>
——————————————————————————<br/>
<br/>
It’s taken him upwards of sixty years, but Tenzin looks around the newly-repopulated Northern Air Temple and thinks he might be able to stop worrying about the longevity of the Air Nation.<br/>
Fifteen years ago, seeing a dozen children he isn’t related to playing airball in the courtyard would have been a pipe dream. Being able to somewhat-retire as another airbender takes his seat in the Republic City government and having a few spare moments that don’t feel like they should be spent meditating while he’s got the chance? He’d have laughed at the suggestion.<br/>
There are most certainly things he hasn’t done. Traditions and knowledge that he himself has lost, things that won’t be passed on because they’re outdated. But there are good people in the new Air Nation. He’s got a brilliant, beautiful daughter who’s memorized all he has and more, and three more incredibly skilled children he adores. They alone bring more happiness than he could ever have expected out of his life; the rest is all a bonus.<br/>
There still are and always will be worries, but in the long run, what reason has he not to smile?<br/>
<br/>
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Kya will admit that when she set out on her adventures, she hadn’t really expected to end up broke in a nearly-nameless mountain town in the Earth Kingdom, but here she is, and she’s never been more content.<br/>
There’s a barstool set up on a small, raised platform near the wall, and she’s got a guitar across her knees that she’s covered with paintings of banyangrove trees and spirit designs. A little glass jar half-filled with yuan sits at her feet. The bar owner is kind enough to let Kya crash in the tiny attic apartment of the building. Her voice isn’t perfect, but she’s happy to share it.<br/>
She won’t be staying here more than long enough to build up funds to take her to the next town up the mountain, the peak of which she’s determined to reach within the year. But she’s met interesting people and heard interesting stores. Kissed beautiful girls she’ll never see again and danced in the rain. Made her own existence and name outside the names of her parents and rarely been unhappy with it.<br/>
The glass on the counter behind her is only slightly more full than the jar of yuan, but as far as she’s concerned, it may as well be full.</p>
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<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Not Ready to Make Nice - The Chicks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Extreme family strain, implied/referenced borderline domestic violence</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A letter had come again. They’d been coming for years, at first multiple times a month, then less and less frequently until they dropped to once a year, and finally between gaps of multiple years. Whatever news Suyin deemed fit to share with her this time wouldn’t make it to its intended destination; Lin hadn’t opened a single one since the very first had arrived.<br/>It had come out of the blue, somewhere around ten years after Su had been sent away. To say it had come as a shock was an understatement. They hadn’t communicated at all in that time, except for a single interaction when Lin had caught word through her position that Su had been arrested in Ba Sing Se. Knowing what she did about the prisons there and their history, Lin had come to a silent, late-night decision and arranged her sister’s bail without saying a word. No thanks had ever been sent.<br/>No thanks came in that first letter, either. Merely a plea to come to Su’s city- Zaofu- and meet with her and their mother to try and "make things right." Lin’s blood had boiled at the thought, especially as she scanned the letter and realized that not only was there no apology, there wasn’t even an acknowledgement of the fact that Suyin had scarred her face. She’d danced around the very idea, clearly avoiding admitting to anything.<br/>Perhaps her mother and sister were able to bury the hatchet and pretend that nothing had ever happened, but Lin wasn’t. Perhaps it had been ten years, but Lin was still furious over how things had turned out. Would remain angry every time she looked in the mirror for too long. So sure, forgiving her sister sounded like the righteous choice on paper. Maybe she should have done so then.<br/>Maybe she should do so now, twenty years and countless letters down the line.<br/>The letter falls, unopened, into the waste bin beside her desk.<br/>She’s not ready to forgive and forget. She doubts she ever will be.<br/><br/></p>
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<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Beautiful Drug - Zac Brown Band</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Drugs, Alcohol, Alcoholism, addiction</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lin had never been interested in drugs as a teen and at this point has been part of enough drug busts to know she doesn’t want any part of them.<br/>But seeing Kya moving around the courtyard practicing her waterbending, she suddenly gets the appeal.<br/>There’s no telling how long she’s been standing there staring. It’s long enough for Kya to have shifted from measured exercises to an ethereal combination of forms and dancing. It’s almost addicting; Air Temple Island could burst into flames behind her and Lin wouldn’t notice.<br/>Kya reaches up to tug out the hair tie holding her ponytail up and Lin somehow tumbles even deeper into her stupor as the silver locks sway around her like rogue moonbeams in the afternoon sunlight. She’s got to stop her feet from moving forward of their own accord.<br/>A bitter voice in the back of her mind whispers that this is dangerous. This feeling of floating, of being unable to take her eyes off of Kya, her smile, her arms, the way she talks and moves and even blinks. The way her entire body flushes warm when Kya laughs at something she says and the sensation of tumbling, rising, swirling like champagne bubbles when they kiss. This is addiction; this is what it is to need something so desperately she won’t be able to breathe without the fix.<br/>Kya finally notices her. Her eyes light up over a brilliant, blinding smile.<br/>If this is addiction, Lin’s fairly certain she has no interest in being saved.</p>
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<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Angry Too - Lola Blanc</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: Implied/Referenced Murder</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lin Beifong is a woman who prides herself on her composure. She uses her anger in a way that gets her point across through intimidation, and knows who she can and can’t use that on. She snaps, but doesn’t rant. Yells, but doesn’t scream. Glares, but doesn’t stomp her feet. Anger is useful. Tantrums are not.<br/>Her office door slams with enough force to rattle the handful of accolades she’s seen fit to hang on the wall. She consciously restrains her footsteps from shaking the entire building. Closes her eyes and tries to control the furious snarl on her face.<br/>It lasts approximately three seconds before she lashes out and shoves everything off of her desk. Papers and metal bits go flying and she’s briefly glad she doesn’t use an inkwell.<br/>How can they be making this mistake *again?* The council has decided to let another criminal go, on the basis of "getting information" from her. This woman has violently and mercilessly murdered three people. Three people, and however many more she will kill because Lin is under no delusion that she won’t do it again. The council has decided that those people’s lives are worth less than information.<br/>Lin bristles when they attempt to tell her how to do her job on a good day, but this is something else entirely. This is throwing mud in the face of everything she- of everything the RCPD- stands for. They are here to first and foremost protect civilians in Republic City, and no matter how spiritual or ancient the items in an antiquities trafficking scheme may be, they do not come before that goal.<br/>The greatest slight is that Lin knows she could have gotten the location of the warehouse without the offer of immunity. She doesn’t know whether the council lacks patience or lacks faith in her or both, but she knows she could have gotten it. But now there is a murderer with immunity loose on the street. The last time the council had made a bargain like this had ended with two children dead. There’s no part of this situation that isn’t wrong, but the fact that they could so easily forget the consequences of these decisions heats the very blood in her veins.<br/>And Tenzin has the audacity to tell her to calm down, assure her that she’ll "get her on another charge" and that this is for the best. If Lin had been a lesser woman in that moment, she would have broken his nose.<br/>She grips the edge of her desk so tight her knuckles go from white to red. Her nails leave tiny divots in the wood. Takes a few deep breaths in through her nose. With carefully controlled motions, she gathers up the things on her floor and sets them back in their exact places. She’ll double surveillance on the woman, place herself personally in charge of the raid on the warehouse, work to be faster at interrogation so that next time the council has no reason to offer immunity behind her back. She’ll beat back the absolute fury roaring through her ears and focus it on a clear plan of attack. Anger is useful. Temper is not.<br/><br/></p>
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